The Nail Files 4/27



Today I am linking up with Tara and Vicki for the Nail Files. 


This week I used Essie. I am finding with Essie, you need three coats to get the true color. I don't really like that. It means longer drying time.

Lapis of Luxury

I found this color at Walgreen's. I would usually go to the beauty supply to get it and pay half of what I paid for it, but I was too lazy.

I had my nails cut down a little bit this week. They were starting to look like witches nails.
So far I am loving this color.



I am off to Newport, RI in a few hours to hang out with my daughter, bring her dresses and to pack up and bring home a lot of her things before the school year ends. It will not all fit in her car. Of course I will be bringing food and she has already invited people to join us.

Newport is beautiful and such a fun place to be!  I wish it wasn't going to be cold.  I am sure I will make the best of it.

Have a great weekend!

"Its OK" Thursday 4/26

I am linking up again with with Neely: A Complete Waste of Makeup and Amber: Brunch With
Amber Click the button above to visit and link up too!

"Its OK"

- That my daughter was disappointed because I did not do my "Its OK" Thursday post last week. She texted me asking me where my post was.

-That my daughter wanted to borrow one of my dresses to wear to a military ball she went to. She looks so much like me that it is scary. I however, would not have worn a blue bra with this dress.

No that is not her boyfriend, just a friend.

-That it never used to bother me when my husband travelled for work. I now hate it. I don't like being in the house alone. I wont even sleep upstairs.

-That I am going to go get another mani/pedi because I found a great new color of nail polish. Did I mention I was bored?

-That I miss my oldest daughter and favorite grand baby. I haven't seen them in almost three months. I am trying to hold off until June and go visit for my daughters birthday. I really don't think I will be able to hold out for that long.

-That my son comes by and checks on me when my husband is out of town. He has turned into Mr. Chatterbox.

-That while my husband was away I decided to indulge in ravioli's. I contemplated buying two bags (they were a pound each). I bought one and could barely eat half of it. Thank god!

-That I bought yodels and chewy spree's  and I didn't finish those either. I haven't had junk food in I don't know how long.

-That I have been promising my middle daughter I will go spend a weekend with her at school at some point. She graduates in less than a month so its this weekend or never. I just hope its not a repeat of http://underthesuburbansun.blogspot.com/2012/04/being-21.html. Her friends are already texting me, "Mom are you coming out to do the free drinks dance?" Lord help me.

-That I didn't do my usual house cleaning routine on Sunday. My house still looks like I did. That's what happens when you are a neurotic nut and have had years to train your husband.

-That I don't care if the bird (a robin)  that keeps hurtling himself into my sliding door hurts himself. I swear its the same bird every year and he makes such a mess of my sliding door and deck.

That is the perpetrator on top of the grill. I think he is mocking me.

He leaves footprints on my glass the little &*^%$*&^

-That my husband sends me to get the steaks.When he goes, he gets average steaks. When I go, the butcher gives us the best cuts and trims everything for me.  Maybe if my husband wore high heels when he went to the store. he would get the same service.

-That I am going to try and skip grocery shopping this week.

-That this text was sent to me by my husband when he got on the plane

Have a great Thursday!

Mushroom Risotto recipe

Today I am linking up with the fabulous Ms. Kathe for You're gonna LOVE it! Tuesday.  Please join us! Everyone is welcome!

I know a lot of restaurants serve risotto as an appetizer, but I serve it as a side dish when I am tired of potato's or plain rice.

It is a time consuming process so do not attempt to make this recipe if you are in a rush and do not want to be chained to the stove while stirring.  It is worth the time when you want to feel like a gourmet cook.

You will need:

1 container of chicken stock
olive oil
1 container of fresh mushrooms. I use white mushrooms. I have tried mixing portabello's too but they don't have as much flavor.
1 1/2 cups of Arborio rice
1/2 cup of dry white wine. I use Pinot Grigio.
1/4 of a packet of Swansons flavor boost
4 tablespoons of butter
fresh ground pepper
salt
1/3 a cup of grated Parmesan cheese

When making this recipe, it is much easier if you have all of your ingredients ready and measured.

Start by taking out the stems and slicing your mushrooms.

Brown the mushrooms in a pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. I cook mine pretty well because that's how I like them. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the Arborio rice in a different pan while you are cooking the mushrooms. You want the rice to have a pale golden color and look like this

You also want to be heating up your chicken stock. It needs to be hot in order to cook properly.

I have these three pans going at once. It makes it easier.

Remove the mushrooms and liquid from the stove when cooked and set aside.

Cook your rice over medium/high heat the whole time you are cooking it.

When the rice is lightly browned,  pour in the wine and stir constantly until it is absorbed. I usually take it off of my stove and do this step over the sink. If you don't, it makes a mess.

Add a 1/2 a cup of chicken stock until it is absorbed. Keep adding the chicken stock a 1/2 a cup at a time until it is all absorbed. Stirring continuously.  Add in the 1/4 packet of flavor boost while cooking. It should take about 20/25 minutes for the whole process.

When almost all of the liquid is absorbed (you do not want it to be dry), remove the rice from the heat.

Add the mushrooms with any liquid that is left, the Parmesan cheese and the butter. Stir well.

Serve immediately

Bon appetit!

(I will share this steak marinade at another time)

New York, New York big city of dreams

Today I am linking up with the fabulous Ms. Kathe for You're gonna LOVE it! Tuesday. 

I picked this post because I Love NY!  (the city not the sport's teams )

My husband sent me a text on Monday a few weeks ago while I was at work. He said he had to go to the New York office for a few days and did I want to go with him?  He told me I would be on my own during the day while he worked. I am not going to lie, I wanted to say yes and no at the same time. I was afraid to be in the big city by myself all day. Maybe I am just too sheltered, I don't know. I don't even know where the fear comes from. When i was younger I was so much more adventurous than I am now.  I am embarrassed to admit, with how close that I am to New York, the only time I had ever seen it was driving through.  I have always wanted to go to New York.  Skating at Rockefeller Center is something I have always wanted to do. I talk about it all of the time!  Seeing New York in countless movies and of course, watching Sex and the City made me want to go there.  My husband kept prodding me to go. I relented. I mean really what else did I have to do?  I want to spend my days travelling and here is my perfect opportunity and I am going to say no?
I really did hesitate when i sent the text "yes, I will go". I am SO glad that I did. The few days I had weren't enough! I need to go back!

We flew into New York. The flight is about an hour. The ride from JFK to Manhattan took about an hour. I just wanted to be in the city already. The driving in New York...I don't even know what to say about it, I thought Boston was bad. We got dropped off at my husbands office.

The view from the office

We couldn't check into the hotel until later. I went up to the office with him to store our luggage. I know most of the people on his team in the NY office. Most have them have been to my house for dinner at some point when they had to be in the Boston office. I had to go in and at least say hi. I really couldn't get out of there fast enough though. I wanted to go exploring. One of the gentlemen from his office had to go to Madison Avenue so he said he would walk me to it. I don't even know what came over me but I didn't even care if I got lost. I told my husband that if I did in fact get lost, I would call him and he could come find me. My first stop was going to be Saks to find the dress I had been looking for, but I got sidetracked by Saint Patrick's Cathedral. What an amazing place that is. The architecture is incredible.

 I had a little bit of ADD while I was there. I would go into an amazing store then not be able to concentrate because I was thinking of all of the landmarks that I wanted to see. I mean I can shop anywhere right?   Not really, the stores in my area don't even compare to the stores in NY so that was my dilemma. My time was limited and I had so much I wanted to do. I went from being petrified before going to being so excited to be there. The energy in New York is amazing.
Saks did not have my dress sadly (don't worry, I ordered it online when I got home). We have a Saks here so I did not want to waste time in a store that I have in my area.

This does not even skim the surface of the fabulous stores in NY. These are just some of my favorites.

After countless stores, I found Rockefeller Center. It was beautiful. It was still decorated for Easter. The next day they were ripping out all of the Easter decorations and getting it ready for spring. I am glad I saw the Easter decorations because they were so cute.

To my surprise, there were skaters at Rockefeller Center. The ice was a little slushy because it was so warm. I had peep toe booties on and needed to go buy a pair of socks to skate later ( sadly that never happened because my feet were bloody stumps by the end of the day).

I sat in front of the NY Public Library for about two hours getting sun and just people watching. I needed to rest my feet.  After I had rested, I did a little more shopping.

The library

 I had to meet my husband and a few of his team members for dinner but I wanted to freshen up first.  I went back to his office and got the luggage and checked into our hotel. We stayed at 70 Park Avenue, it was right up the street from his office. It was a very cute boutique hotel. I will say the room was not that big.

The room pictures I took did not come out that great but these were the bathrobes.

We went to dinner at a little Italian place called Padre Figlio. It was delicious! I was starving from all of the exercise i had gotten that day. The cosmo's were also delicious, but not as good as the cosmo's my husband makes.

Padre Figlio's

 We had a nice leisurely dinner then went back to the hotel bar for another cosmo. I was exhausted when we left the restaurant but once i got out on the street and felt that New York energy, I could have gone a few more hours,. After we had our drink it was straight up to bed. I needed to rest up for the next day. I think i fell asleep in under a minute.
The next day, my husband took the day off to explore with me. We actually were going to leave earlier but we ended up staying. We had breakfast at the Rockefeller Center Cafe. No I did not skate, my feet were screaming and I am very thankful I did in fact pack a pair of flat sandals.

We went to Central Park. My husband asked me if I wanted to take a horse and carriage ride. I didn't. I felt so bad for those horses, they all looked so sad to me. I did not want to contribute to their misery.

 We went to Trump tower. It was beautiful.

For those of you who watch The Celebrity Apprentice, this was the bike made for "The Donald"

 We went to Times Square. A little too much of a carnival atmosphere for me but full of energy. We walked all day

 We spent some time in Bryant park.

 We went back to the hotel to get our bags and catch our train. We could not get a flight so we took the train. We still had to go back to the airport to get our car. We took the Amtrak Acela train home. It was packed. We ended up at a table that seated four. My husband kept calling it the collaboration table and he hated the whole concept of it. We got stuck sitting with "Mr. Hand" (remember him from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and a Harvard professor who ate two huge packages of sushi with chopsticks (I also think he had an extra set of chopsticks wedged up his A$$, that's how uptight this guy seemed and who eats sushi on a train anyway?)  Know it all Chatty Kathy was across from us. Had my luggage been accessible, I would have gotten a sock and put it in his mouth. I wanted to sleep but couldn't because of the constant drone of his annoying voice. I will think twice before taking a train again. Uncomfortable seats and a long ride, but we made it back safely.

Now I just want to be back in New York and I cant wait for my next trip there! There was so much that I didn't get to see. I still need to get my skate on at Rockefeller Center!